1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a hitting apparatus, and more specifically to an apparatus using hook and loop, magnet or adhesive to hold the ball for hitting practice.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Devices for aiding in the training of a ball hitting swing are generally known in the art. There are a variety of batting apparatus for batting practice. The conventional batting apparatus is usually designed as a vertically standing position. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,838 discloses a batting baseball tee. U.S. Pat. No. 5,672,124 discloses an automatic batting tee apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 6,413,175 discloses a batting tee with brush fiber holding and a swing guide. U.S. Pat. No. 6,682,445 discloses a durable batting tee with rubber holding material.
These types of batting apparatus only provide some degree of batting practice. Although the practice may be useful in some aspects, the hitting is not freely. When ball is hit, the angle of the hitting, resistance between the ball and ball holder will affect the spin and trajectory of the ball. It is not very easy for batter to get a clear hit without the bat touching any parts of the holder. This will reduce the hitting strength on the ball. It is also very difficulty for batter to hit the ball in right angle and make it fly out from batting apparatus in right spinning and angle.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,150 discloses a ball hitting practice apparatus, which is capable of consistently delivering a ball through the same or similar moving path to simulate a number of different types of pitches. It includes a special design releasable ball mounting assembly comprises two complementary halves which fixed to tubular member and ball respectively by a hook and loop type fastener. The attaching force of this special tubular member fixture would be much higher than the weight of ball to prevent ball falling from hook during ball mounting device moving before batter hitting the ball. Its ball mounting assembly could not be releasable from support member which could affect batting's swing in case of batting miss of hitting ball while hit on any part of the ball mounting assembly or rigid member above. It can be considered as a toss/pitching training apparatus.
US2009/0082140A1 shows a hitting apparatus comprising a support unit including foldable support legs, an adjust support rod, an adjustable hanging arm, a connecting element string and an attaching element suction disk which can hold ball temporarily for about 5-10 seconds. This is not very practical and useful for batting practice. The connection element is not releasable in case of hitting by bat. It can be considered as a drop ball hitting training apparatus.
Therefore, the present invention provides a hitting apparatus to enable the batter to practice hitting the ball almost freely in various manners such as hitting angle and ball spinning to improve the hitting skills and strength. The swing bat will not touch the attaching part and detaching force between attaching part and ball will be minimum as weight of the balls. Batter will focus on hitting ball in full strength not worry about to hit the attaching parts.